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Saturday, 24 January 2015

US Military Social-Media Accounts Hacked

According to the reports, a hacker group who is claiming to be with the terrorist group ISIS and call themselves as the “Recently, Cyber Caliphate, took the complete control over the operation of Centcom YouTube channel and Twitter account that represents the United States central military command. There was a Pastebin tweeted by the hackers titles as “Pentagon account hacked with a message that, American soldiers, we are coming, now its time when you should watch your back. #CyberCaliphate”. This message included links to what is suppose to be with some confidential US Army files.

However, according to sources, it has come to light that these files might have been made available to public previously, in other words, these files cannot be deemed highly confidential. These files might not be confidential but at the end of the day, it was the files of Centcom’s social accounts that were compromised. This clearly indicates the pathetic state of the cyber security in the United States government. And if the hackers are able to get their hands on some of the most confidential files then it clearly indicates that ISIS is a more dreadful cyber-opponent than anyone can expect.

According to the tweets of Politico reporter Hadas Gold at 9:46AM PST, Twitter is aware of the cyber attack on Centcom and taking necessary steps to work on the issue. According to the update at 10:05AM PST, Twitter was able to remove the cover image and the profile image from Centcom. This was followed by the suspension of the Centcom account at 10:10AM PST. At 10:15AM PST, there was an update posted indicating one of the defense officials has confirmed these attacks to Fusion reported Brett LoGiurato. Brett LoGiurato tweeted that, defense official have confirmed that the United States Central Command Twitter account has been compromised. At 10:35AM PST another update followed indicating that even YouTube has suspended the hacked account of Centcom from YouTube. Around 11:55AM PST, The Next Web’s Matt Navarra tweeted that there has been a request received from Pentagon pertaining to an account security issue and they are working on the issue to resolve it.

Before the accounts could be shut, the following tweets were released from the account:

1. Pentagon network hacked: Korean scenarios.
2. American soldiers, we are coming to you, now it’s time when you should watch your back.
3. We will not stop; we know everything about you, your wife, and your children.
4. ISIS is already here, we are in your computers, in each of your military base

While the US and its satellites kill our brothers and soldiers in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, then we broke into your networks and personal devices and know every information about you. The Cyber-Caliphate has also claimed to have taken control over the US media affiliates of CBS News and Fox in Tennessee. According to one of the Anonymous post left out in Pastebin, “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the Cyber-Caliphate under the auspices of ISIS will continues with its Cyber-Jihad.